A brief history of modern psychology provides a stimulating new resource that will inspire 21st century psychology students interest in their sciences past michael m sokal founding editor history of psychology the behaviorism chapter was the best historical introduction that i can remember reading just what historical writing should be wesley g morgan department of . The 19th century was when psychology was established as an empirical accepted science while measures would change within that 100 year span the model of research and evaluation would begin to take shape 1878 g stanley hall becomes the first american to earn a phd in psychology. Psychologys history can be traced back to aristotles considerations of happiness and descartes discussion of mind brain dualism benjamin 2007 from which much of this section is drawn. Background philosophy and physiology while psychology did not emerge as a separate discipline until the late 1800s its earliest history can be traced back to the time of the early greeks